How to Read to Your Child – Without Falling Asleep!
by Rachel Webb
Experts all agree that reading to young children as well as babies is vitally important to their learning and growth. Knowing how to choose good books can also play a part in their development process as well as helping to keep you awake! A child development specialist once told me that if you can read a book to your child in less than 3 minutes you wasted your time. What? You mean I can’t race through it and get the story over with!
Real quality reading time should include your child asking questions, pointing at pictures and interacting. As all parents grandparent and care-giver’s know, our kids tend to pick the same book and want it read over and over and over. Let’s face it, reading can get boring for the adults! Here are 8 tips on ways that parents can keep reading interesting and help our children build important developmental skills.
1. USE ANIMATED VOICES
Read the story using a different voice for each character. My father read the JRR Tolkien series to us as children and his Golum and Bilbo Baggins voices were the best!
2. LEAVE OUT WORDS
When reading leave out words or parts of sentences for your child to fill in.
3. READ WITH ACCENTS
If you find yourself getting bored with a book, start reading with an English, French or Spanish accent!
4. SING THE STORY
Make up a tune and start singing. If you aren’t good at making tunes up pick a familiar classical or folk song.
5. CHANGE THE WORDS
In reading their most favorite books I keep my attention by changing the main characters name constantly throughout the story. My kids find it a fun game to correct me. For older kids try changing the sentence or word at the end of every page to see if my kids can catch the mistake. Start with outrageous words (Hippopotamus or Pickle work well)that have nothing to do with the story at first but make it harder as they catch on.
6. READ THE BOOK BACKWARDS
This won’t work for all books, but it’s lots of fun to try!
7. MAKE UP A NEW STORY
A good children’s book should tell a story that makes sense without the printed words. Help your child make up a new story that fits the pictures.
8. WORD SEARCH
If the kids know their alphabet, teach them a simple word, then have them find or count how many times the word is used in the story.
Parents and child care givers can also benefit from learning HOW to effectively read to children. Never rush through a book. Even small storybooks should take more than 5 minutes to read. Why? Children need to be encouraged to ask questions, point to pictures, and use the story time as interactive play. The kids should hold the book and turn the pages.
AGE APPROPRIATE
When choosing a good book make sure that the stories are age appropriate and on your child’s level. Schools and public libraries have book lists available to parents that will rate the books age range. The range can vary but most are based on how many words there are in the book and the difficulty in the words themselves. Subject matter may not be a determining factor so parents need to review books carefully if their child will be reading it by themselves.
PICTURES
Young children should be choosing books where the pictures are clear and can tell the story without the printed words. The pages should not be cluttered with to many objects on a page.
BALANCED SUBJECT MATTER
You want you child to find reading to be fun but you need to include educational books too. Stories that tell about your counties history or judicial system can still be written in a fun and entertaining way.
TEACH A PRINCIPLE
Books that teach morals can be a in-direct and natural way for sharing or hitting to be discussed with your child without pointing fingers and lecturing. Young children can benefit from books that teach about unfamiliar animals therefore giving parents the opportunity to encourage the child’s language skills. Rhyming books also provide important language skills your young child needs.
Author Rachel Webb has 4 children and she designs100% Magnetic Fridge Calendars that write-on/wipe-off & are entirely magnet guaranteed not to slide off when the kids slam the fridge door! Visit: http://www.Note-Ables.com E-Mail Rachel@Note-Ables.com & mention this web site for $2 off coupon